Health Ministry sets minimum sanitary services for the general strike on November 11

The Department of Health of the Principality of Asturias has established the minimum services that must be maintained by health centers, contracted hospitals, and auxiliary companies during the general strike called for November 11, 2026. The decision is published in the Official Gazette of the Principality of Asturias (BOPA) no. 217, dated November 10, 2026, through two resolutions signed on November 6 by the counselor María Concepción Saavedra Rielo, with official references 2026-09255 (health centers and institutions dependent on SESPA) and 2026-09257 (contracted centers and auxiliary companies). The strike is called from 00:00 to 24:00 hours and also covers the shift prior to 00:00 hours and the last shift of the day.

The file refers to the national general strike jointly called by Comisiones Obreras and Unión General de Trabajadores, to which other state-level calls are added (Confederación General del Trabajo, Confederación Intersindical, Confederación Nacional del Trabajo, Sindicato Único de Trabajadores Solidaridad Obrera, Sindicato de Comisiones de Base, Organización Sindical de Acción Directa, and Alternativa Sindical de Clase) and regional ones (Red de la Clase Trabayadora, Intersindical Asturiana, and Corriente Sindical de Izquierda). The Department justifies the minimums based on Article 28.2 of the Constitution and Article 10 of Royal Decree-Law 17/1977, of March 4, after meeting with the strike committee on November 4 at 9:30 hours. Both resolutions end the administrative route and allow for a contentious-administrative appeal before the Contentious-Administrative Chamber of the High Court of Justice of Asturias.

Four annexes and coverage by areas

Resolution 2026-09257 deploys the minimums in four annexes:

• Annex I: centers linked to the Public Hospital Network through a singular agreement (Fundación Hospital de Avilés, Fundación Hospital de Jove, and Fundación Sanatorio Adaro).
• Annex II: external contracts of centers dependent on SESPA.
• Annex III: external contracts of the centers in Annex I.
• Annex IV: other centers linked to the Public Use Health Network by contract or agreement with SESPA, such as the Red Cross Hospital of Gijón.

Resolution 2026-09255 details the personnel by health area—I West-Jarrio, II Center-Southwest (Cangas del Narcea, Oviedo, and Mieres), and III East (Gijón, Arriondas, and Langreo)—with separate columns for the night of the 10th, the morning, the afternoon, and the night of November 11, and percentages of minimums based on the planned staff.

Continuous care, SAMU, and emergencies at one hundred percent

The SESPA document raises the minimums precisely in the critical points: continued care in Primary Care is set at 100% of the usual staffing, as are the SAMU mobile ICUs, the Medical Emergencies and Urgencies Coordination Center, and hospital emergencies. The Department argues that, without this coverage, many clinics would have to close and access to an essential service would be prevented. Resident staff are also included, based on Supreme Court ruling no. 1523/2021, of December 17, although only in specialties where their work is deemed essential.

The agreement annexes specify ratios per service. In the Cruz Roja Hospital of Gijón, for example, nursing minimums drop from 51.5 staff to 12 in the morning, 9 in the afternoon, and 5 at night; in the Hospital de Avilés Foundation, wards 1, 2, and 3 maintain one nursing staff member per shift, and the operating room goes from 5 to 3 in the afternoon shift.

Cleaning, kitchen, security, and maintenance

The resolution for contracted centers focuses on auxiliary services, which it considers critical: catering, cleaning, laundry, security, and transport. The annexes designate companies and categories with staff shift by shift, including Lacera (cleaning), Euler, Mediterránea de Catering, Senior, S.A., Grupo Asepro (security), Serveo, Veolia, Elecnor, Althea, and Konē Elevadores. In the Cangas del Narcea area, one maintenance officer per shift and one security guard per shift are set, and in the Adaro Sanatorium, laboratory and radiology technicians are set to zero for the morning and afternoon.

The relevance is direct for Asturian patients: the strike will affect consultations, operating rooms, hospitalization, and emergencies throughout the community, and these resolutions determine which personnel and which contracts must be operational that day, with special attention to emergency areas and continued care points.

Source: Official Gazette of the Principality of Asturias, no. 217 of November 10, 2026, section I (Principality of Asturias, Other Provisions), page 1 (official reference: Code 2026-09257 and Code 2026-09255).